Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 504 Meteorite Gold [Please Subscribe]

Lingzhou, a desolate mountain wilderness.

This desolate mountain wilderness, which even Qi Refining stage cultivators would not easily visit in the past, has now attracted many cultivators who are searching for something here.

"Search carefully! That fiend has been severely injured by the commander; he's definitely still hiding in these mountains!"

In the sky, Xu Fu stood suspended in mid-air, his face solemn as he loudly ordered his numerous subordinates to search the mountains below.

At this point, more than ten years had passed since he was transferred back to Lingzhou to serve in the demon-slaying brigade.

Over the course of ten years, he has made numerous contributions, and with the Zhou family's background, he has finally become the deputy commander of the demon-slaying team.

A few days ago, the Lingzhou Demon Extermination Team discovered a clue that a demon was hiding in a stronghold of rogue cultivators, secretly plotting to harm them in order to cultivate demonic arts.

Subsequently, the commander of the Lingzhou Demon Extermination Team led Xu Fu and others to attack the stronghold of the rogue cultivators, and engaged in a great battle with the demon and his henchmen.

After a fierce chase, the demon used a secret technique that resulted in mutual destruction, fighting the demon-slaying team leader to a standstill before forcibly breaking through and escaping into the mountains.

The leader of the demon-slaying team was seriously injured, with demonic energy entering his body, so he had to return to a nearby stronghold to meditate and heal. He then entrusted the task of hunting down the demon to Xu Fu.

This was both a challenge and an opportunity for Xu Fu.

After so many years of hard work, he has accumulated over 70,000 battle merits.

If he can lead the team to defeat that demon this time, he will have a great chance to save up enough to exchange for a spirit item that helps him open up his Purple Mansion.

With his superior spiritual root aptitude and the powerful will honed through countless battles, as long as he has a spiritual object to assist him, his success rate in opening the Purple Mansion will definitely be 50% to 60%!

Therefore, he was more eager than anyone else to search for that demon.

Perhaps because the damage was too severe, the demon's hiding place was found not long afterward.

Two Qi Refining stage cultivators who were close by were immediately seized by this demon and had their blood drained!

"Here he is! The devil is here!"

A terrified voice rang out from a mountaintop. Upon hearing the shouts, Xu Fu, who was in the sky, immediately led seven or eight Foundation Establishment cultivators to rush over.

Subsequently, these Foundation Establishment cultivators, led by Xu Fu, formed a battle formation and fought against the demon.

Because the demon himself was already severely injured, and his strength was reduced to less than one-tenth, he was unable to do anything to these juniors when facing the battle formation formed by Xu Fu and other Foundation Establishment cultivators.

After a hard-fought battle, Xu Fu and his group finally managed to kill the demonic cultivator in the Purple Mansion stage, at the cost of the deaths of two early Foundation Establishment cultivators!

For a Foundation Establishment cultivator to kill a Purple Mansion stage demonic cultivator, even one who was severely injured, Xu Fu's actions made him quite famous.

Furthermore, because of his family background, his superiors did not dare to take too much credit for his achievements and basically reported his accomplishments normally.

After careful calculation, Xu Fu finally accumulated enough battle merits to exchange for a spiritual item that could help him open up his Purple Mansion.

As for the spirit coins needed to exchange for spirit items, he had already accumulated enough over the years of fighting.

Therefore, as soon as he achieved the required merits, he immediately applied for the exchange.

According to the rules of the Heavenly Spirit Alliance, Qi Refining stage cultivators have priority in exchanging Foundation Establishment Pills and Foundation Establishment Spiritual Items, while Foundation Establishment stage cultivators have priority in exchanging Spiritual Items that assist in opening the Purple Mansion.

So while the Zhou family still had two [Mysterious Heart Purple Rejuvenation Pills] waiting in line, Xu Fu only had to wait a few months to receive a spiritual item that could help him open his Purple Mansion.

After obtaining the spiritual object, he immediately asked for leave and went into seclusion at his post.

As an honorary elder of the Zhou family, the news that Xu Fu had obtained a spiritual object to assist in opening the Purple Mansion and went into seclusion quickly reached Zhou Chun's ears.

At that time, Zhou Chun was busy refining the [Earth Mother Profound Gold]. Upon hearing this news, his eyes narrowed slightly.

After he ordered his men to retrieve and review Xu Fu's intelligence from recent years, he muttered to himself, "This lad has quite the luck. It seems I must summon him back to the family as soon as he emerges from seclusion!"

Xu Fu was involved in the Zhou family's development of the wilderness and knew many of the Zhou family's secrets.

Zhou Chun would never allow someone like this to leave the Zhou family and become independent.

As the Zhou family's power grew, the interests of the wilderness became even more important to them.

Once the layout of the wilderness is exposed, the impact on the Zhou family will be much greater than before.

Therefore, these outsiders who know the secrets of the wilderness must be brought under stricter control!

Since Zhou Chun successfully formed his core, he has begun to study and cultivate the "Soul Control Technique". After several years of practice, he has made some progress. If given another two or three years to cultivate, he should be able to successfully use this secret technique.

Compared to the previous method of using the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique" to track and threaten individuals, the "Soul Control Technique" is undoubtedly much stronger in controlling people.

This method is similar to the "Dragon Soul Seed" secret technique used by the Dragon Transformation Sect for its members at the level of Dharma Protector or above, which can plant a "soul seed" in the soul of the recipient using the divine consciousness of a Golden Core cultivator.

If a Golden Core cultivator does not help stabilize the "Soul Seed" within a certain period of time, the "Soul Seed" will automatically explode, causing the victim's soul to perish or be severely injured.

Naturally, practitioners of the "Soul Control Technique" can also actively cast spells to detonate the "Soul Seed," eliminating those who dare to betray them from thousands of miles away!

However, the drawback of the "Soul Control Technique" is that the practitioner must be a whole realm higher than the target; otherwise, the "soul seed" will not be able to threaten the other party and will be easily erased.

Furthermore, if a cultivator with a much stronger spiritual sense than the caster intervenes, the "soul seed" can be erased with the recipient's active cooperation.

From this perspective, the "Dragon Soul Seed" is undoubtedly much more sophisticated and powerful than the "Soul Control Technique".

Unfortunately, although the Zhou family possesses the "Dragon Soul Seed Technique" cultivation method, that technique can only be used after cultivating the fourth level of the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique." Only when the recipient cultivates the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique" to the third level can the "Dragon Soul Seed" be successfully planted. Moreover, Zhou Chun did not cultivate this technique with the Azure Dragon bloodline!

Once the technical requirements are met, smelting [Earth Mother Mystic Gold] is actually a laborious, assembly-line-like task.

Every day, Zhou Chun would use his own Golden Core True Fire to smelt the ore, peeling away the impurities little by little, until what remained was the [Earth Mother Profound Gold].

At his pace, it would take him about two years to smelt all the [Earth Mother Mystic Gold] ore he had collected.

This explains why it took Lin Hongyu several years to refine her natal magic weapon.

……

Jiufengling, Baozhifeng.

After successfully obtaining the gallbladder of the second-tier Fire Scale Python, Zhou Xinyan returned to her family to complete the mission and then rushed to Jiufeng Ridge. There, she had her spirit pet, the Crimson Flame Dragon Python, consume two gallbladders and a three-hundred-year-old medicinal dragon grass to begin its evolutionary journey.

The reason he came to Jiufengling was also due to psychological reasons.

Many cultivators in the Zhou family now believe that Jiufeng Ridge is a blessed land for the family, and that it is easier to succeed in breaking through in seclusion or allowing spirit pets to evolve here than in other places.

Zhou Xinyan was one of them, so he specially chose Baozhi Peak, where the clan leader Zhou Chun had once lived, to allow his spirit pet to break through and evolve.

The place he chose was not far from Zhou Chun's original courtyard.

Whether it's true that there's such a thing as luck or not, Zhou Xinyan's spirit pet, the Crimson Flame Dragon Python, successfully evolved to the second tier and became a mid-level demon beast after only three months of waiting on Baozhi Peak.

The Crimson Flame Dragon Python, having evolved to the second tier, not only grew crimson snake scales resembling dragon scales on its body, but also developed a bulge on its head similar to that of the Silver Lightning Python Bai Bai, clearly indicating that dragon horns were developing.

At this moment, it could perhaps be called the Fiery Dragon Python!

Zhou Xinyan was overjoyed to have successfully trained her spirit pet, the Crimson Flame Dragon Python, into the Blazing Flame Dragon Python.

He has always regarded the clan leader Zhou Chun as his idol and goal, and wanted to become a strong person like the clan leader Zhou Chun.

Therefore, even with the intermediate-level demon beast Blue Feather Fire Kite, he still contracted and nurtured a Crimson Flame Dragon Python, dreaming that one day he could also cultivate it into a dragon.

Now that the Crimson Flame Dragon Python has evolved into the Blazing Flame Dragon Python, it has taken an important step on the road to becoming a Flood Dragon, and its joy is beyond words.

To celebrate this event, he specially hosted a banquet and invited many fellow cultivators to his residence to celebrate, showing them the magnificent appearance of the evolved Flaming Dragon Python.

Zhou Chun happened to release his divine sense to scan various places within Tu Yunling and happened to see the scene of celebration at Zhou Xinyan's residence.

He secretly observed Zhou Xinyan's magical aura and then the newly evolved Fiery Dragon Python, and couldn't help but nod slightly, saying, "Hmm, Xinyan is not bad. If he can successfully open his Purple Mansion, he could be considered as a Golden Core seed for cultivation in the future!"

With top-grade spiritual root aptitude and cultivating top-level techniques, such a cultivator would be a worthy candidate for Golden Core even within a major sect.

Of course, major sects are not lacking in geniuses, but to truly become a Golden Core seed and receive preferential treatment from sect resources, one must consider their personal background and performance.

However, in cultivation families like the Zhou family, geniuses of this caliber are rare. Once they appear, as long as they are not of bad character and beyond redemption, they are generally quite easy for the family to cultivate as seed cultivators for the Golden Core stage.

This is also one of the important reasons why some talented members of cultivation families are willing to stay in their families.

To put it bluntly, there is no shortage of geniuses in this world.

Taking the Zhou family as an example, there are currently two cultivators with superior spiritual root aptitude, Zhou Xinyan and Zhou Yuanyuan, among the clan's cultivators. In the future, there will definitely be more cultivators with superior spiritual root aptitude.

In addition, there are two cultivators from other clans, Zhang Liang and Xu Fu, who also possess top-grade spiritual roots.

This doesn't even include Lin Hongyu and Su Yuzhen, two cultivators with superior spiritual roots.

Therefore, if you think that you have the aptitude for superior spiritual roots and will receive the full support of a major sect, that is simply wishful thinking.

Regardless of what other cultivators thought, Zhou Chun's own experience had shown that resources were more important than aptitude!

With sufficient resources, even a cultivator with a mid-grade spiritual root aptitude like him can successfully form his core on the first try.

If resources are poor, it is not uncommon for cultivators with superior spiritual root aptitude to fail in forming their core.

Therefore, as the controller of resources, he would never easily allocate resources to a clansman just because that clansman has outstanding spiritual talent.

Unless he has the legendary top-grade spiritual root aptitude!

Time passed slowly. While Zhou Chun was focused on refining the Earth Mother Mystic Gold, the Zhou family held several skill competitions as he requested.

Because of the generous prizes and the fact that anyone could sign up to participate, many Zhou family cultivators signed up.

While the several major competitions consumed a lot of the family's resources, they did indeed uncover a few talented members of the family.

The most talented member of the clan was a young man of the "Zhi" generation named Zhou Zhixiong. He had a high talent for talisman making. Although he was only at the third level of the Qi Refining stage, he was able to make more than ten kinds of first-grade low-level magic talismans after studying the art for three years, and the success rate of each of them was more than 30%.

Upon learning of this, Zhou Chun immediately assigned a second-tier talisman maker from his clan to mentor him and provided him with preferential treatment in terms of medicinal resources.

Currently, the best talisman maker in the Zhou family is Zhou Daoyi, who can create third-tier low-grade magic talismans.

However, according to him, this is basically the upper limit of his talisman-making skills. Unless he can successfully form a golden core, it is impossible for him to make any more advanced talismans.

Zhou Zhixiong's talent in talisman making, based on his current age and cultivation level, is significantly stronger than Zhou Daoyi's. If he can successfully open his Purple Mansion in the future, he will likely have a good chance of becoming a third-tier high-grade talisman maker.

If a family could cultivate a talisman maker of this caliber, it would greatly enhance their family's prestige.

Besides Zhou Zhixiong, the talisman-making genius, there was another person whose performance in the skills competition caught Zhou Chun's attention.

That person was Zhang Liang, a cultivator from a powerful family.

This cultivator with superior spiritual root aptitude, who initially became acquainted with Zhou Chun and then married into the Zhou family, also possessed remarkable talent in formations.

During the years he spent living with his array master partner Zhou Xindie, he discovered his own talent in this area. Under the relatively complete array inheritance and training of the Zhou family, he has already surpassed his partner Zhou Xindie in the art of array formation.

In this Zhou family skills competition, he was the chief examiner for the formation aspect.

With his current mastery of array formations, he is almost on par with Zhou Chongshan, the second elder of the Zhou family back then.

It is said that he is currently studying the Five Directions Miro Formation diagram that the You family presented at Zhou Chun's Golden Elixir Ceremony.

If he can truly comprehend this array diagram and set up the [Five Directions Miro Array], then his array formation skills will have completely caught up with Zhou Chongshan's.

"If this person can truly set up the Five Directions Miro Formation, we might as well support him in opening his Purple Mansion. That way, he might become the first formation master of our Zhou family!"

"And this can also serve the purpose of 'spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones'!"

Zhou Chun secretly made a note in his little notebook. The names written in the notebook were all talents in the family that he thought could be observed and cultivated.

It took nearly two years for Zhou Chun to finally refine all the [Earth Mother Profound Gold].

Once this important matter was completed, Zhou Chun went to the Su family in Jiangzhou.

His Daoist partner, Su Yuzhen, has also begun to cultivate a "virtual core" in seclusion, and the progress is quite good. It is estimated that she will be able to succeed within one or two years.

After learning about the situation, Zhou Chun left without disturbing his Daoist partner any further.

Then he headed straight for the Great Zhou Kingdom.

Several years have passed, and Luo Qingni should have recovered from her research on improving the pill formula. Zhou Chun wants to ask her to use her connections to gather the necessary spiritual herbs to refine a batch of [Ancient Dust Pill].

In addition, he has had his family collect several batches of auxiliary materials for Foundation Establishment Pills over the past few years, and it is time to ask Luo Qingni to refine them together.

He also had to collect the [Taiyi Xuanjin Qi] from the Treasure Pavilion that day to prevent Manager Sun from diverting the goods he had ordered to others.

At the same time, we should also see if we can meet the puppeteer we talked about with Luo Qingni last time.

While I'm at it, I'll also try to find out more about Yu Jinghua and see what that old man is up to lately!

After reaching the Golden Core stage, traveling between the Great Zhou Kingdom and the Jing Kingdom became extremely convenient. Zhou Chun no longer needed to carefully consider and arrange his trips as he used to.

But what Zhou Chun didn't expect was that when he entered Tianyuan Immortal City and went to look for Luo Qingni, he found nothing.

It was from the shop where Luo Qingni had placed her order that I learned that she had been commissioned by a sect in a country outside of the Great Zhou Dynasty to go there and refine pills for that sect for three years. She had already been there for two years.

"That's strange. Given Luo Qingni's personality, it's fine to ask her to refine pills, but getting her to come to your home as a full-time alchemist is almost impossible! Could it be..."

Zhou Chun suddenly thought of something, shook his head, and stopped thinking about it.

If it were truly as he suspected, with a Nascent Soul stage cultivator personally extending an invitation, then Luo Qingni would indeed find it difficult to refuse.

In the cultivation world, strength is paramount. If a Nascent Soul cultivator invites a Golden Core cultivator to do something, the Golden Core cultivator will find it difficult to refuse, and dare not refuse, unless the request is too demanding!

Since Luo Qingni can't come back for the time being, the matter of asking her to refine pills will have to be postponed.

Zhou Chun immediately went to Tianbao Pavilion to collect the pre-ordered [Taiyi Xuanjin Qi].

Sun Yuanjing of Tianbao Pavilion was indeed acting in accordance with the contract. Zhou Chun easily obtained the [Taiyi Xuanjin Qi] he had collected over the years from him. If things continued to go smoothly, it wouldn't be difficult for him to gather enough gold qi in about twenty years.

After the exchange of the gold energy was completed, Sun Yuanjing suddenly looked at Zhou Chun and said, "By the way, have you collected all the magical treasures and spiritual materials that Fellow Daoist Zhang mentioned last time? I've come to know who has one of these materials over the past few years, and that person intends to use it to exchange for other treasures. If Fellow Daoist Zhang is willing, I'm happy to act as a go-between for you two and facilitate a transaction!"

"Oh, I wonder which kind of spiritual material Fellow Daoist Sun is referring to?"

Zhou Chun's eyes lit up, and he immediately became interested.

"It's a piece of [Meteorite Gold], weighing over 700 jin. That should be more than enough for what you need, Fellow Daoist Zhang!"

Sun Yuanjing smiled slightly and gave the answer.

"It's actually [Meteorite Gold]!"

Zhou Chun's gaze sharpened, and a look of surprise immediately appeared in his eyes.

The list of magical artifact materials he gave Sun Yuanjing earlier was the complete list of materials needed for the [Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron].

However, when crafting the [Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron], only a few materials are needed at the beginning.

The same applies to the natal magic treasures of many Golden Core cultivators; initially, all that is needed is to gather the core refining materials to begin refining them.

For example, the core refining materials for the [Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron] are [Earth Mother Mystic Gold], [Millennium Mystic Iron], and [Heavenly Mystic Gold Sand]. As long as you gather these materials, you can refine the basic version of the [Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron].

If you later obtain materials such as [Gold Essence], [Geng Gold], and [Venus Stone], you can still add them to the magic weapon through smelting to enhance its power and growth speed.

However, adding materials to a magic weapon halfway through the process requires a special method to nurture the magic weapon for a period of time, which will waste some cultivation time.

If Zhou Chun can gather all the materials to refine the [Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron], then once the treasure is successfully refined, its power will be much stronger than the basic version, and it will also save a lot of effort later on.

Therefore, if possible, he still wants to collect as many materials as possible to refine the [Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron], saving him the trouble of slowly melting and nurturing it later.

The "Starfall Gold" that Sun Yuanjing is talking about is one of the more difficult materials to collect among the materials needed for the "Myriad Transformations Golden Cauldron".

Now that Zhou Chun has news of this item, how could he not be happy?

He immediately clasped his hands in a fist and bowed to Sun Yuanjing, saying, "Manager Sun, you're too kind. I'll leave this matter to you!"

"No problem, no problem."

Sun Yuanjing smiled slightly and readily agreed.

He's willing to act as a go-between not because he's happy to help others, but because doing this favor can expand his network and allow him to extend his influence.

Today, he helped Zhou Chun make the connection. Regardless of whether the deal goes through or not, Zhou Chun and the cultivator who possesses the [Starfall Gold] will be indebted to him. In the future, whether they are selling or buying spiritual items, they will definitely think of him first.

That's how business comes in!

Golden Core cultivators have a wide range of activities. Their Tianbao Pavilion may be very competitive in Tianyuan Immortal City and the Great Zhou Kingdom, but it may not be so in other places.

If he could turn these favors into regular customers for the Golden Core cultivators from other places, it would greatly help improve his own status within the Tianbao Pavilion.

With Sun Yuanjing acting as a go-between, Zhou Chun quickly met the cultivator who possessed the [Starfall Gold].

Without a doubt, the other party was also a Golden Core cultivator, and a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator at that.

Furthermore, this person does not need magical treasures or spiritual materials; he only wants to exchange [Starfall Gold] for two relatively rare thousand-year-old medicinal herbs.

"Fellow Daoist He, you require a thousand-year-old precious medicine. I, Zhang, only have one Golden Ring Polygonatum plant that meets your requirements. This spiritual herb is over three thousand six hundred years old, making it extremely rare!"

"If you're willing to trade, fellow Daoist, I can add another two-thousand-year-old Life-Giving Grass!"

Inside Tianbao Pavilion, after examining the [Starfall Gold] that the other party had brought out, Zhou Chun gave his most sincere offer.

He couldn't possibly exchange two thousand-year-old precious herbs for a piece of [Starfall Gold], because although [Starfall Gold] was also hard to find, it wasn't as rare and essential as [Earth Mother Mysterious Gold].

Even if he can't get it now, he has plenty of time to collect it slowly in the future.

He himself would need the thousand-year-old precious medicine in the future.

Without a doubt, Zhou Chun's offer was right on the other party's bottom line.

The other party guessed that he needed [Starfall Gold] to refine his natal magic weapon, and he also knew that the other party wanted to refine a thousand-year-old precious medicine into a spiritual pill to break through to the late stage of the Golden Core realm.

Neither side can gain the upper hand by relying on the other's needs.

After some back and forth, Zhou Chun added two ordinary thousand-year-old spiritual herbs as bargaining chips, and still managed to get the [Starfall Gold].

Despite weighing over 700 pounds, this piece of "Meteorite Gold" is actually only the size of a goose egg. It looks dark and unremarkable.

After finalizing the deal, Zhou Chun thanked Sun Yuanjing again and then went to Tianzhilou to inquire about Yu Jinghua.

(End of this chapter)